Artist Spotlight
HOW UP-AND-COMING HIP HOP ARTIST ROYAL RASHAD IS HANDCRAFTING HIS CAREER TO HIS FULL ADVANTAGE

Hello Royal Rashad, Thanks for coming to Honk Magazine to talk about your career.
Tell us a little more about when you first got into music?
I got into music at an early age, 13 I believe. I remember hearing one of my cousins freestyle and I was like “yo how do you do that… just brainstorm rhymes on the fly?” He said “man you just flow with the beat and say what’s on your mind” then he started beating on the porch and told me to try.. that’s when history started.
If you could describe your sound/style in one word, what would it be and why?
Sleek. My wordplay is sharp and my cadence is smooth
What would you say to any aspiring recording artists who look up to your work?
Just be yourself and do you and Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do what you’re passionate about.
What quote or mantra do you live by?
Whenever things go left or go wrong I call it a Minor setback… for a major comeback. And I always bounce back.
What is your hobby outside of music?
In my free time I like to play video games, it allows me to miss and reminisce my first love… sports
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Continuing the path that God has set out for me, which is to evolve and grow with my talents
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
This is what you love to do, just have fun with it.
Do you have anything new or upcoming we can expect to see from you?
Yes I always have hot new music on deck that I can’t wait for the world to hear. Stay tuned
What is the inspiration behind your latest song?
Playa Made. The beat really. It just felt like something I could ride and listen to with the windows down cruising on a beautiful day.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me on Instagram @royalrashad
Artist Spotlight
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama
Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.
This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.
Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.
Artist Spotlight
“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival
“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.
“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.
Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.
“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.
Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina
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